Development Hell: Destination Games actually created two MMOs during Tabula Rasa's development. The first iteration of Tabula Rasa was fairly complete by 2004, but was canned. The final version of Tabula Rasa is nothing like the Tabula Rasa of 2004. Just take a look at the 2004 trailer, and the walkthroughfrom E3 during the same year. In a December 2011 interview with Eurogamer, Richard Garriott explained why the original 2004 build was scrapped—they were initially attempting to design a game that would appeal to Asian markets, as Lineage 2 does. After two years of development, however, feedback during the development process indicated that the game just wouldn't take. Destination Games decided to focus more on what they were familiar with doing, leading to the final product. However, having spent two years and millions of dollars already on a what was practically an entirely different MMO, NCSoft was very impatient and pushed Destination Games to get Tabula Rasa out the door.
Divorced Installment: Tabula Rasa was known as Ultima X in development, and was intended as a Spiritual Successor to Ultima. The first version was going to be a fantasy MMORPG, then was scrapped to make a second fantasy MMORPG, then it was scrapped entirely and made into a completely different MMOFPS.
Screwed by the Network: While the game's shutdown in 2009 seemed to have been brought on by naturally low player interest, low returns, and limited future plans, NCsoft really went out of its way to screw over Richard Garriott on the way out. In November 2008, a series of announcements by NCsoft claimed that Garriott had parted from the company for other ventures, and that the game would be shuttering... except during that time, Garriott was in mandatory quarantine for an upcoming space flight, which was in part a publicity stunt to promote the game. In 2009, he filed a lawsuit against NCsoft for wrongfully terminating his employment, alleging that they forged his letter of resignation to deprive him of company stock under the basis of a "willful resignation" as part of his contract, shortchanging him millions out of the profits. Garriott ended up winning the lawsuit in 2010 and was awarded $28 million in damages, and even after NCsoft attempted to appeal, the courts continued to side with him, affirming that NCsoft greatly mishandled his departure.
What Could Have Been: Very little of Tabula Rasa's 2004 incarnation remained in the final product, although the central theme of the Eloh vs. the Bane was present, as was the Eloh's ideographic language. Here's some of the highlights of Tabula Rasa in its 2004 incarnation:
All players owned personal property within an area known as the Sanctuary, a set of floating islands within the event horizon of a wormhole. Each player's island would have been fully customizable, allowing players to change its size and features. They could be made private (invite-only) or publicly accessible. This was also where players handled crafting, which was purely recipe-based and required no specific skill set to perform. Player-owned vendors could also be set up.
The Sanctuaries would also have offered an introduction to the game in a Justified Tutorial, solving the problem of then-current generation MMOs dropping a player into the game world without any idea of what they should be doing.
"Wild_ComLp4" was the theme used in player-owned islands during the E3 demo.
Similar to the Phantasy Star MMOs, players would access multiplayer "hubs" within the Sanctuary through a Waypoint in their home island. Within the multiplayer hub, players could teleport directly to their friends or areas of interest at any time. From the Hub, players and parties would use a Wormhole Generator to depart on missions, to the various planets under threat by the Bane. All missions had a text briefing explaining their objectives, risks, and rewards before departing.
The concept of Body, Mind, and Spirit played a much larger role. Each attribute had different kind of weapons affiliated with it; Body weapons were physical, such as swords and guns. Mind weapons were informational, like books, scrolls, or light pens to form glyphs in the air. Spirit weapons involved music and dancing, such as instruments. One spirit weapon featured rotated like a hula-hoop when not in use, then transformed into a harp when attacking. Another was called the Resonating Lens, and emitted sonic pulses.
Enemies had varying Body, Mind, and Spirit attributes as well, and players had to choose the right weapon type to effectively deal with them.
Instead of the Adrenaline Meter, the 2004 version had a Chi Meter. Every time the player successfully hits a target, the meter would full up, to a maximum of three levels. The player could then use a level to unleash a Chi Strike. Using a variety of attacks built the gauge up faster than spamming a single attack. The sam-taeguk (similar to the taijitu) used as the emblem of the Allied Free Sentients in the released version of the game served as the Chi Meter.
The 2004 version emphasized the Virtual Paper Doll mechanic more; similar to City of Heroes, Phantasy Star Universe, and Champions Online, players had the freedom to wear what clothes they wanted. Actual armor bonuses came from accessories that hovered around the player, like Mags in Phantasy Star Online. These pieces of armor changed the silhouette of a player, which was what would have denoted the player's class (one featured player had halo and wing-like accessories).
For the fanfic
What Could Have Been: Chapter 28 was originally going to have the girls (Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo) inadvertently causing chaos while trying to help Ranma. When that idea didn't pan out, the author considered either having Mousse make a fool of himself, or having Kuno show up and anger Ranma. Then they considered changing that idea to having both Kuno and Kodachi show up going on bad information provided by Nabiki. Ultimately all those ideas were left out because they either did nothing for the story or because it would have made the chapter too long.
When the author came up with the idea of a Sanctuary comprised entirely of women martial artists devoted to stopping Happosai, they were going to play it as a serious thing. Unable to come up with a serious sure fire way of defeating the old lech, they decided to make it a wild goose chase.
Instead of having the Nerima Wrecking Crew being taken hostage, Ranma was going to blow up at the women and then in the next scene was going to have both her and the gang running for their lives with the women chasing them, but the author disliked that outcome and changed it.
, and the walkthrough